Another Me Made May has come and gone. If you remember from previous years, this is an annual event in the online sewing community where we make a pledge to wear more of our handmade clothing. You can set whatever parameters you like for the challenge, but most people, myself included, try to wear something we've made every day of the month. The idea is to get more wear out of the clothing we make, but I get so much more out of it than that. When you wear only handmade clothing for a month, a lot of stuff comes up.
It forces you to to stock of your wardrobe and really think about the clothing you wear, don't wear and want to wear. May is the perfect month for examining your closet, at least where I'm from, because you're transitioning from cold to warm weather. I took note of both what I was bored to death of wearing all winter and what I was excited (or not) about pulling out from my summer things. I realized I rely a little too heavily on t-shirts and cardigans when it's cold, which is at least 6 months of the year in Canada. How boring! I also noticed that I have a lot of tops, but hardly any bottoms. And a few of my sundresses are looking worn and just not fitting well anymore.
Based on that information, I can focus my sewing for the year. Clearly I need to up my warm and cozy game next fall with some dressier pieces and by sourcing some better sweater knits. I also need to get sewing more skirts and pants stat. I always make a couple of new dresses every summer, so I'm not too worried on that end.
Once you figure out what you need to sew, there's no better time or place to look for patterns to fit those needs. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of sewists around the world sharing their creations every day and I love scrolling through it all. Thank goodness for Instagram's new bookmark feature. I saved so many outfits!
All that inspiration is incredibly motivating. It fires up my productivity like nothing else. Even though the 100 Day Project stole a lot of my sewing energy this year, I still managed to sew eight new garments! Three tank tops, sweat pants for both me and my husband, a button-up blouse, a sweater and a t-shirt. Woo! Blog posts coming soon!
Every year the challenge gets a little easier as my handmade wardrobe grows. Daily selfies, on the other hand, do not. Haha! (I only documented 28 outfits, after all.) I think we all suffer through that part. Knowing we're in it together, through the pattern taping, the stitch-ripping, the baby hems, the double needles, and that bloody camera self-timer, is probably the best part of the whole thing.
For a closer look at all of my Me Made May outfits, hop on over to my Instagram. :)
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